DOE: Natural gas will eat into diesel consumption

By 2040, use of natural gas in heavy-duty vehicles will have displaced about 700,000 barrels per day of other heavy-duty fuels, like diesel, says the 2013 version Annual Energy Outlook Reference, produced by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration.

The predicted growth in consumption of diesel fuel compared to the 2012 AEO has been lowered some by a projected increased use of natural says in heavy-duty vehicles, the EIA says. As the economic benefit of natural gas improves — and results in an uptick of use in natural gas — diesel fuel consumption will be offset. The AEO predicts that 1.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas per year will be used in heavy duty vehicles by 2040. In 2011, the U.S. consumed 0.03 billion cubic feet of natural gas in all vehicles, including light- and medium-duty.